This blog will record my research (both in Australia and overseas), links I like, articles or newsletters I read, family history news that excites me and so on. The aim is to be a daily record of my activities which might be of interest to other genealogy researchers.

Genealogy notes 26 Jun 2012 - Day 2 of Unlock the Past Brisbane Expo

My first session was Audrey Collins talking about online newspapers and periodicals and I just love the information you can find in digitized newspapers these days. The other session was Graham Jaunay with an introduction to family history research.

From Session 2 there were 4 choices for the rest of the day making it hard to decide what to go to. I had no choice as I was doing Family History on the Cheap with other options Cassie Mercer talking about Captain Starlight, John Graham on the Ryerson Index, Geoff Morgan on Finding Frank and Horace and Graham Jaunay helping to date photos.

I missed Session 3 as I was chatting to people after my talk and I was also a bit desperate for a cup of tea (all that talking). Choices were Rosemary Kopittke on Find My Past Australia and New Zealand (and I had wanted to hear that as the site has changed considerably recently but I will probably catch that talk elsewhere on the Audrey Collins tour); Carole Riley on Australian land records; Jill Ball talking about Google+ and Blogs (and some expo photos are now appearing in her blog) and I really would like to learn a bit more about how Google+ works and finally in the Research Area Kerry was demonstrating Legacy Family Tree and Eric and Graham were doing Reunion for Mac.

With no scheduled lunch break in the program attendees had to decide which of the next two sessions they would miss if they wanted time out. I went to Graham Jaunay's sesson on Irish genealogy but other choices were Kerry Farmer on convicts, Alan Phillips on the next Unlock the Past genealogy cruise and Saadia Thomson-Dwyer on immigration records at Queensland State Archives.

Session 5 for me was an Ask an Expert hour which turned into 90 minutes with 3 people asking me about various things. I was especially pleased to be able to tell one woman the name of the ship and date her ancestor arrived on as she had been unable to find it. As he was of Swiss origin and had arrived in Victoria, I thought of checking the National Archives of Australia naturalization records. There was a reference to him and even better they had digitised the memorial (5 pages) and it gave her all the relevant details. It's really nice when you can do that for someone on the spot.

However I missed the live presentation on Google your family tree from Dan Lynch in the USA, Eric Kopittke on German ancestry, Neville Buch on writing professional history and Jill Ball on Picasa and Flip Pal mobile scanner. As my expert session went over time I also missed the next session with Audrey Collins talking about the London Gazette (which I have used myself), Jack Ford on Brisbane in WW2, Stephanie Ryan on family history at the State Library of Queensland, Paul Parton on Google Earth for family historians and in the Research Area Graham Jaunay was again doing dating photographs.

I couldn't miss the last session because I was giving my talk on the National Library of Australia and using TROVE but that meant I missed Judy Webster on Black sheep and vanishing relatives, Helen Smith on online learning and Rosemary Kopittke on MyHeritage. I received some lovely feedback on my talk as people left and I wandered out to find that it was still chilly and still raining. It seems the weather will start to improve at the weekend but by then I will be on my way back to really cold Melbourne!

Throughout the day I managed to say hello to various people and even made one of the Geneablogger photos. Hopefully we will link all our various expo posts so that you can see what other bloggers thought of sessions I missed. Day 3 is starting in a few hours so I need to get my skates on, get dressed, breakfasted and through the Brisbane traffic in time for Stephen Dando-Collins talk at 9.30. Max told me his first talk was good so I don't want to miss this one.

As well as writing up Day 3, I have to do a round up on the exhibitors and as usual I will do an overall expo review which will be posted on my website. Stay tuned.

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